Pure Music to take on Spotify

Pure, the radio specialist, announced Pure Music on Tuesday; a streaming service that sees it going head-to-head with Spotify.

Building on the success of last year's FlowSongs platform, Pure Music again uses 7Digital's extensive catalogue but this time around doesn't require users to pay for individual downloads.

For £4.99 a month Pure Music offers unlimited streaming across multiple devices. There's a web-based player on its Lounge website, mobile apps (iOS available now, Android coming soon) and, of course, the service is available on the company's internet connected radios - of which there are eight.

Looks-wise, the web player looks a bit like Spotify's pasty cousin; with a white and grey theme going on. All of the usual ingredients are there such as playlists, recommendations, the ability to share tracks via social networks and so on.

One differentiating factor from Spotify is the tagging service, as was introduced with FlowSongs. This means that when listening to the radio and you hear a tune you like you can tag it and then explore the artist and stream the relevant material.

Of the 15 million songs available on the 7Digital provided catalogue, Pure states that "the vast majority" are streamable and that licensing deals will extend the offerings over time.

The platform itself will also evolve, we're told that a lossless format will arrive (it's just 128kbps at the moment) along with launches in more countries - for now it's UK-only.

The service works on 3G and Wi-Fi and there are no limits to the amount of devices that you can hook-up to your account. Pure will be monitoring IP addresses though, so you won't be able to share an account with your buddies.

If you're a fan of FlowSongs, don't worry, as that service isn't dead. It is incorporated into Pure Music although, if you're not interested in the streaming side, you can simply tag and buy songs for free - the £2.99 fee has been scrapped.

Pure Music goes live in December - Pocket-lint will be testing out the platform before then so be sure to check back for a detailed hands-on look soon.